It Wasn't My Idea

Previoulsy: Paco & Amanda take a closer look at the trail.

12:40 PM - Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Xavier Prep, Outer Richmond District, San Francisco

Jeannie watched Mark prod Tyler Shea into giving up a mapping of the Pr3pSF site, but he didn’t offer much. There was nothing new about the individual handles and who they were, how they were formed, or any idea about how they could be decoded. Everyone was anonymous. The mythic “Admin” prompted with questions or directives every so often, but never in any kind of syntax or expression that might reveal their identity. 

“When did you first get on this site, Tyler?” Mark finally asked. 

“I don’t know, about like, maybe last spring some time?” The auburn flecks spread over the kid’s cheekbones seemed to flare as he said it.

“How did it happen? When did you hear about it?” The boy leaned back to draw a deep breath. 

“Um - like, I don’t know. It just sort of happened. I think I remember Dash Reilly telling me sort of on the sly, like, one day? That there was like a secret chat room for the private school kids?”

“Are you asking me? I’m asking you.” Mark’s tone was impatient, but Jeannie had to roll her lips to stop smirking. It was a question her Grandpa would say when he got irritated at the way she and her brothers ended every sentence with a high inflection. In college, a linguistics professor called it a “California accent”. 

“No - like, I’m saying he told me about it and that a bunch of people were joining.” Tyler recovered.

“How do you join?” 

“Someone has to invite you. Tyler invited me, and submitted my email address and then I got an email with an access link and a password. But I guess whoever it is that runs it knows who’s who, because like, you can’t invite just anyone. They have to have a school email address.”

“Yeah, we learned that part already.” 

“So, like, who told you guys? I mean…there’s rules. No one’s supposed to talk about it.”

“But everyone knows about it.” Jeannie jumped in. “And everyone’s on it....Right?”

Tyler Shea looked at here with wide eyes and nodded. 

“But no one can talk about it?”

He nodded again.

“Well then, we can’t tell you how we know about it, can we?” Jeannie countered. Mark chuckled a little.

“Okay Tyler.” Mark broke in, “why don’t you take us through Friday night. What was your costume, when did you arrive, what did you have to drink?”

Tyler Shea told them he’d arrived around 7:20 and said hello to Charlie who was just starting to get his set list going. He saw Tripp’s parents briefly as they were on their way out to dinner and said hello to them. He and Vin Parisi dressed up in 1970s suits like the guys in American Hustle —trying to be funny mobsters. 

“Anyone in a trench coat?” Mark interjected. Tyler looked abashed.

“N-no. I didn’t have a trench coat.” 

“That’s not what I asked, Tyler. I want to know if anyone was in a trench coat, that you can remember.”

“Um, well, Tripp was a flasher, so he had a trench coat, yeah.”

“No one else?”

“I don’t know - maybe? I mean there were a lot of people there.” Jeannie and Mark exchanged a glance. Jeannie opened her phone to the image of one of the rubber wolf masks they had in evidence.

“Tyler, have you ever seen this before?” Jeannie held the phone in front of Tyler, whose eyes got even bigger.

“Um…yeah. Yeah, I guess so.”

“You guess so?” Mark tossed out. He was clearly enjoying giving this kid a hard time. “Do you remember anyone wearing one of these masks on Friday night at the after party at Inspiration Point?” Tyler said nothing but looked away from the image on the phone screen.

“Or, maybe you were one of the people wearing one?” Jeannie tilted her head at the boy, willing him to look at her. First, Tyler’s brow crunched together in an exaggerated fold, then his eyes crinkled like a shattered window. He looked at Jeannie and then looked away again. “Were you one of the people wearing one, Tyler?” Tyler let out a sharp sob. “Tyler?” Jeannie persisted.

“Y- yeah.” He said softly, “yeah, I wore one.” The kid leaned forward, head hanging. 

“Who else?” Tyler’s shoulders shook slightly. “Who. Else. Tyler.” Tyler took some sharp breaths, and then sat back and looked at Jeannie full in the face, tears in his eyes.

“It was me, Vin Parisi, Tripp…”

“Who was the fourth one? We found four masks, Tyler, who was the fourth?” Jeannie insisted. The kid was breaking in front of her, but they hadn’t been going that hard on him. Something else was going on here.

“It wasn’t my idea.” The kid said faintly. Jeannie’s eyes narrowed. This was the second time someone had said that. 

“Hmmm, that’s funny, Tyler. Someone else told us exactly the same thing, that it wasn’t their idea…tell me who the fourth person was, Tyler. I mean, we already know, but we need to hear it from you.” Jeannie felt Mark’s eyes on her as she leaned forward to get closer to the crying Tyler Shea. “Who was it?” She finished quietly.

“Dash...It was Dash.” 

“Dash Reilly. Okay, so you, Dash, Tripp, and Vin Parisi all wore wolf masks on Friday night to horse around and scare the girls, from what we have heard. But you seem pretty upset about that right now.” Tyler kept trying to regulate his breath which sounded like he was sniffing and choking at once. “Why? What’s so upsetting if you were just horsing around? What’s the harm in that?” 

“I’m - I’m scared.” Tyler whispered.

“You’re scared of me? Of Greenberg here? We’re just talking. Nothing to be afraid of, Tyler. What’s making you scared?”

“Alexa - Alexa Thomas. We scared her.” Tyler raised his head and looked between Jeannie and Mark. “We scared her. She ran off on the trail and it was dark and we didn’t see her again.” It began pouring out. “I - I kept thinking we’d see her back at the rock where everyone was hanging out, but she never showed again. And then I kept thinking she just walked home or something, or went to Carolina’s or Tally’s…but then Dash called me on Sunday afternoon and told me about the meeting and….”

“And that Alexa Thomas was dead?” Mark asked quietly. Tyler’s face was a puddle of red splotches which enflamed the color of his deep freckles. He nodded softly at Mark in reply. 

“Okay,” Jeannie began, “so whose idea was it to wear the masks?”

“Tripp’s. His Mom had bought them — he thought it would be funny.”

“Was that the plan, to scare Alexa, or to scare everyone?” 

“I - I don’t know. It was just like, we got to the point and Tripp gave all of us one of those little Tito’s and we drank them together and then we put the masks on, and kind of just started hooting and hollering around.”

“Okay, but the point is kind of far from where we found the masks in the redwood grove.” Mark stood and perched himself on the table to face Tyler fully. “How did you guys make it over there - that trail’s dark and the grove is at least 100 yards away.”

“Ye-yeah. I guess. I don’t know. It was just fun, like, in the moment? Like, we were all drunk - it didn’t seem scary or far or anything? It was fun.” 

“Sure, I get that. Halloween is fun.” Mark agreed. “But a girl is dead, Tyler, and one of the last photos on her iPhone is of someone in a wolf mask wearing a trench coat.” Tyler’s eyes widened with pure fear. 

“What - what do you mean?”

“I mean, she took photos. Someone on that trail, whoever it was that was frightening her, got their picture taken.” Mark raised his eyebrows at Tyler. “So, honestly Tyler, it’s just a matter of time before one of you tells us the full truth about why you were so far away from the rest of the party, and why Alexa Thomas happened to be with you four goons.” Silence. Tyler was wary. “You think it was an accident that Alexa was separated from the crowd? Because I don’t. I think someone wanted her away from her friends, on a dark trail, scared out of her mind.” Silence again. Jeannie glanced around the vast, empty room and saw the librarian at the door, chatting with another student, asking them to wait a few minutes in a whisper. “So, Tyler, why don’t you tell us the whole plan and we’ll consider if it adds up with what we already know.”